Embodiments disclosed herein relate generally to electronic devices and, more specifically, to microfluidic sensor package structures including one or more spaces for containing a material to be analyzed and methods of fabricating the same.
A microfluidic sensor is an electronic device configured to analyze various kinds of materials while requiring that only a small amount of material be used for the analysis. Microfluidic sensors have been used in separating and synthesizing various kinds of materials in addition to analyzing such materials.
In the past, microfluidic sensors have been fabricated to have a structure, such as a micrometer-sized channel or chamber, such that a material (for example, blood, a chemical material, or other biological material) can be placed proximate to the sensor portion of the device for analysis. Microfluidic sensors have been used in various fields, such as DNA examination, fundamental scientific research of chemical or biological materials, disease diagnosis, cell culture, and various chemical reactions as well as other fields.
For this purpose, microfluidic sensors have been provided with a channel for carrying a material to be analyzed as the material passes over the sensor chip for analysis, or with a chamber for containing and storing the material on the sensor chip for analysis. In previous microfluidic sensors, photolithographic techniques were used to form micrometer-sized metalized stand-offs, which defined channels or chambers, directly on the surface of a microfluidic sensor in wafer form during front-end wafer processing. This approach has had several problems including requiring expensive apparatuses be used, such as spin coaters for applying photoresist and ultraviolet aligners to expose the photoresist and pattern the metalized stand-offs. Also, photolithographic process control has been difficult for microfluidic sensors. Furthermore, this conventional technology has been problematic because the metalized stand-offs are formed directly on the surface of the microfluidic sensor during front-end wafer processing, and thus, the microfluidic sensors are susceptible to scratch damage and/or impact damage, which have decreased the reliability of the devices.
Finally, previous microfluidic sensors devices used expensive printed circuit board (“PCB”) substrates for packaging the devices, which were expensive and added manufacturing costs.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a microfluidic sensor structure and method that overcome the issues with previous microfluidic devices described previously, as well as others. It is also desirable to have a structure and method that is cost effective, easy to integrate into assembly process flows, and reliable.
For simplicity and clarity of the illustration, elements in the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale, and the same reference numbers in different figures can denote the same elements. The use of the word about, approximately or substantially means that a value of an element has a parameter that is expected to be close to a stated value or position. However, as is well known in the art there are always minor variances that prevent the values or positions from being exactly as stated. Additionally, descriptions and details of well-known steps and elements may be omitted for simplicity of the description.